Mandy Nolan: The Candidate

MICF-Mandy-NolanEver wonder what it’s like to run for politics, come breathtakingly close… and lose? MICF 2023 Moosehead Recipient Mandy Nolan does. And she wants to tell her story!

Election Night – Saturday 21 May 2022. Antony Green stopped in his tracks. What was happening in Northern NSW? Comedian Mandy Nolan and all the whacky Independents broke his modelling. He was dumbfounded, and asked… “What is happening in Richmond?”

In her gonzo inspired stand up show: The Candidate, Mandy Nolan gives the inside story on the agonising decision to run for politics. The impossible struggle to look neat for election photos, the fear of what probity might uncover.

The 20 years plus of opinion pieces, the video blogs that could be dug into… and were. Find out how close she came to being publicly humiliated, but how cricket legend Shane Warne saved her arse.

Find out what it’s like to back science in an electorate that’s home ground to Pete Evans and tribes of conspiracists.

How do you reason with people who post stuff like ‘I’ve had a funny feeling in my gut. I’ve been informed the meat section in Woolies has been putting tracking devices in their product… anyone know any cleansing diets to get trackers out of my system?”

Find out what it’s like to have your very own stalker, who thinks you want to kill him… and find out what it’s like to live though one of the worst floods in Australia’s history, where Mandy’s campaign Manager lost her home, and so many of the community lost everything they had.

Suddenly climate change wasn’t abstract anymore. It had arrived. And it wasn’t an accountant or a cop, it was the comedian who was making sense!

The Candidate is about hope. It’s about what it means to be a woman in the male dominated world of politics. It’s about bringing an authentic voice to the political table. Inspired by the courage of young women like Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins, Mandy Nolan stepped forward into a world that she found both exhilarating and terrifying.

How do you maintain your authenticity AND be taken seriously? Should a middle aged woman wear short shorts and thongs on her corflute? Why can nothing be done without a jacket? What is candidate syndrome? How do you answer questions confidently, when you don’t know the answer? And what do you do when you find out your friends drew dick and balls on your election signage?

This is the story of a stand up comedian and mother of 5 who steps into the political arena to push for action on climate change and housing. From door-knocking a Jehovah, to not wearing glasses and accidentally posting a dick pic from Byron’s naked bike ride just a week before the election.

Mandy shares an insight into what it’s like to run for parliament. “Nothing can prepare you for the insane adrenaline sport of campaigning. Not even three decades as a stand up comic,” she said.

And nothing can prepare you for what it’s like to lose. At the end of 14 months on the campaign trail, Mandy found herself in Sydney in a Covid Ward, and she didn’t have Covid!

How could things have gone this wrong? It’s all in… The Candidate.


Mandy Nolan: The Candidate
Regent Room – Melbourne Town Hall, 100 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Season: 4 – 23 April 2023 (previews: 30 March – 2 April)
Information and Bookings: www.comedyfestival.com.au

Image: Mandy Nolan (supplied)